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Saturday, 30 March 2013

It's sketch time at Inkspirational this week and I'm here with an end of the week encouragement post. If you haven't joined in with the challenge yet, take a look, it's a fab layout! It would be great if you played along with us, I'd love to come and see your interpretations!

My card started off with the pretty patterned paper, once I'd chosen that I knew which stamps and colours I wanted to use and I was away. I used my Circle Scissor tool to cut the semi circles at the side. The white looked too stark left as it was so I stamped a background stamp in Antique Linen ink, it's very subtle but it made a difference. I stamped the roses and leaves, fussy cut them and popped them up. I used an oval punch layered onto an Apothecary Accent die for my sentiment - that die has such a beautiful shape! For the three small circle elements of the layout I positioned two pearls and placed a silver brad between them.

Ta dah, surprise - it's not a conventional card - the semi circle swings up to reveal a birthday sentiment! I glued the Pool Party semi circle to the patterned paper and attached my front semi circle with the brad to enable it to swing up. I then glued the whole thing to an A5 piece of Riding Hood Red CS to form the card. I love cards with an unexpected twist! The layout made this card come together so quickly and easily, it was really fun to make!

I fussy cut three pretty roses from the patterned paper to adorn my envelope flap.

I hope I've inspired you to try this sketch layout, please check out what the other DT members have come up with also and then do join us at Inkspirational!

We're all about having your Christmas cards ready early over at 52 {C}CT. Along with cards wouldn't it be fab to have some non Christmas card projects ready too? As there's a fifth Saturday in March we're having an Anything BUT a Card, ATC or Tag challenge this week at 52 {C}CT. So you can create gift packaging, altered items, home decor - whatever takes your fancy so long as it's NOT a card, tag or ATC!

I came across a gable box on Pinterest a while back that had been made with the SU! Scallop Envelope die. You can see the original blog post here - Jenni has provided great instructions and photos. I pinned it for future reference and have borrowed the die from Joanne so I could try making one. Thanks to Jenni and Joanne! Oh my goodness, it's so easy and it makes a good size box.

My last order from SU! contained the Natural Composition Specialty DSP. It's thicker than DSP and is CS weight so I thought it would be perfect for making this box. Another plus is that the sheets are already printed with lovely glossy designs! I followed Jenni's instructions to make the box but used an oval punch for the handles rather than a circle and I also rounded the top corners. Once the box was assembled I stamped and die cut the ornaments - the larger one is embossed with Early Espresso embossing powder and the two smaller ornaments were embossed with Jeweled Gold embossing powder. I added gold thread bows and popped all three ornaments up. I then stamped and die cut the tag and tied it to the box along with three jingle bells using gold thread. I stamped the tag with a stamp from the Elements of Style set using gold pigment ink stamped off once first before stamping the sentiment in Early Espresso ink. I tied the handles together with Chocolate Chip satin ribbon to finish.

Here's a closer view of the tag.

Here's a side view of the gable box and you will see a little something peeking out. Well, with the brown and gold combo I'd chosen I reckoned there was only one variety of choccy suitable to go inside - Ferrero Rocher! The box comfortably holds 9. The box is a good size and would be great for lots of other gifts aside from choccies or sweeties but I had some Ferrero Rochers on hand so in they went for the photo! Obviously they will be long gone come Christmas, so I'll choose a different gift to pop inside or replace the chocs. Another option is to give the box to hubby before Christmas and drop heavy hints about cocoa dusted almonds LOL!

I hope you'll play along with this fun 52 {C}CT challenge, I'm so looking forward to seeing your projects!

Thursday, 28 March 2013

I spent a very happy time at Joanne's house last Saturday at our monthly SU! Make & Take get together. I've put together five of the six cards that Joanne designed for us to make. The sixth card featured a punch art teddy bear and I wasn't up to tackling that on the day and I will have a go at that some other time! I have to confess I changed a few things from Joanne's original card designs - I think she's used to that by now LOL!

First up is a masculine card featuring the fabulous Honeycomb embossing folder and Comfort Cafe papers. The colours are Cajun Craze, Midnight Muse, Pool Party and Very Vanilla. The Happy Birthday flag banner is popped up. I added the balloons to this card, Joanne hadn't included those on her original card. I punched 1" circles and owl feet to make the balloons. I sponged Pool Party ink around the shapes and added some white gel pen highlights. Two of the balloons are popped up.

Card two features the Woodgrain embossing folder, a stamp from the Serene Silhouettes set and the pretty Old Olive striped organdy ribbon. The stamp was coloured with Old Olive, Marina Mist and Perfect Plum markers and the oval and Woodgrain panel were sponged with Old Olive ink. I also sponged the image panel - Joanne had doodled a lovely dot and dash border on the image panel using a Marina Mist marker. Hmmmm, my doodled borders are always less than satisfactory - I can never get the size and spacing even - so I sponged my border instead! The sentiment oval is popped up.

Card three features a fave colour combo of mine - Rich Razzleberry and Pool Party. I die cut and embossed the white panel, punched out the larger butterfly shape, pierced around the butterfly and stamped the sentiment. I glued a piece of patterned paper to the Rich Razzleberry card base and then popped the white panel up. I punched the Pool Party smaller butterfly, sponged the edges with Pool Party ink, glued it down and added three small pearls. I really wanted to add some Pool Party satin ribbon - but I'd already popped up the white panel so I wasn't sure how that would work out. Happily, I was able to feed the ribbon around the panel without getting snagged up on the Dimensionals.

Card four uses a gorgeous rose snipped off from the vintage Flower Trim. After cutting off the rose flower I applied Rose Red ink with a sponge dauber. It's so easy to colour the flowers this way! After embossing the Very Vanilla panel with the Manhattan Flower folder and stamping the sentiment I added the Rose Red seam binding ribbon. I glued the Very Vanilla panel to the Rose Red card base, tucked in the Certainly Celery leafy stems and glued on the rose. This card I left exactly as Joanne designed it!

For the fifth card the Simply Scored tool was used to add an embossed background to a Very Vanilla panel and then pretty punched flowers were added. Joanne had used a combo of Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand. Oh dear, Sahara Sand is NOT a fave of mine, I really don't like it at all! Plus, I like to add a pop of dark colour when I use paler shades so I've used Night of Navy instead of the Sahara Sand. Oh yes, I changed the position of the flowers as well, Joanne had all her flowers in the bottom part of the card. I finished this card off at home and, as per usual, I spent ages faffing about with flower placement! Anyway, I decided to position two flowers at the top.

Joanne is brilliant at adding shaping and dimension to punched flowers, I've learnt some fab tricks from her including this one - USING A PAPER PIERCER TO SCORE PETALS

Place the flower on the piercing mat

Lay the piercer flat along the petal as shown.Press down firmly and draw the point down the petal from the base to tip.

Here's a close up of some of the flowers. For the Blossom flower I snipped between each petal and used the method above to score the petals. Joanne added rhinestone jewels to her flower centres but I took the opportunity to use up some So Saffron brads from my stash!

About Me

Hello, I'm Ruth Muzeen and I live with my hubby Owen and our cat Tingha in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.
Thanks for visiting to look at my creations, please click on a card photo in any blog post to get a larger view. I have categorised albums of my cards available to view on Google Photos. Just click on the category name to go to the relevant album. Please do leave any comments you have, it will be so nice to hear from you! For more info, please see the About Me - Extended tab up at the top.